SF

my brother told me that locals call the city SF or san francisco. not ‘san fran’ or ‘frisco’. which is all just tourist talk (guilty!)

he also told me that if he was asked to close his eyes and imagine one place, his happy place, he always thought of dolores park, SF.

that got me thinking about what my happy place would be? now that i’m back in mumbai and back at my work desk, if i had to close my eyes and think of my happy place, i’d say it’s san francisco.

not just because it’s beautiful or has great weather throughout the year and a crazy good vibe, but more because it’s where my family is. and where i now feel most at home outside of mumbai.

we shuttled between my sister’s house in emerald hill {which is about a 20 minute uber drive away from the main city} and my brother’s house in beach street {which is bang in the city centre}, so we had the best of both worlds.

some of our favorite things to do in san francisco …

(1) Walk the golden gate bridge and visit sausalito.

it seems almost cliched {so much that A refused! i had to eventually drag him..}. but it was the perfect san francisco experience. we got lucky as it was sunny the day we chose to walk the bridge and not too windy. the weather was just perfect.

it was a long walk from my brother’s house near the marina, but it was worth every step. once we crossed the bridge and reached the vista point, our feet were tired and we uber-ed it to sausalito.

{P.S. uber is the best thing to have happened to us this trip. we used it for all our travel. it’s convenient, quick and reasonable cost wise}

sausalito would turn out to be one of my favorite places in california. i’d heard a lot about it from friends and family and so i went there with high expectations. but it still managed to pleasantly surprise me with it’s little city charm.

sausalito also happens to have one of the best views of SF city. it’s dotted with tiny outdoor cafes and restaurants by the pier which are all worth visiting just for the view.

we ate at the napa valley burger company. we didn’t try the burgers {silly us} but the guacamole we ordered was great. just the way i like mine.

we took a ferry on our way back to the city and i’d recommend it just for the view of alcatraz up close.

^^ some pictures of sausalito {looking back i wish we’d taken some more!} and the guacamole at napa valley buger co.^^

(2) DOLORES PARK!

i have this annoying habit. every time i meet a local at a city i’m visiting i ask them what their favorite place in the city is. i always get such fun and different answers. places i’d rarely read about in a travel blog, guide or magazine. this visit, 5 out of 6 times the answer was – dolores park.

my brother in law insisted we go on a saturday afternoon and so we did. after that we returned on wednesday afternoon and then thursday afternoon ;p. so you can guess how much we loved it.

(3) North Beach

north beach is in the north east of san francisco adjacent to chinatown, russian hill and fisherman’s warf. we visited north beach by chance. we were googling “closest in-and-out” {a must visit for all cheeseburger fans} and found one there, adjacent to chipotle. we ended up staying way longer and went back at night to check out the bar scene. which btw is awesome.